Urology Articles

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The PROMISE of Studying Inherited Genes

Men who participate will get free, medical-grade, hereditary cancer risk testing and access to a licensed genetic counselor to help them understand the results.

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Goodbye, CT and Bone Scans?

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has recognizing the increased sensitivity and specificity of PSMA- PET compared to conventional imaging (CT, MRI, bone scans) for detecting micrometastatic disease, at both initial staging ...

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For Advanced Prostate Cancer: Immunotherapy and… Testosterone?

Could the flat-out opposite of conventional wisdom prove to be effective against metastatic prostate cancer?

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Read About the Research You Have Helped Make Possible: the Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund

How important is seed money? Priceless! Our cover story, on Martin Pomper’s PSMA-targeting research, is an excellent example.

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Why Can Dogs Detect Prostate Cancer?

Dogs can smell prostate cancer. In fact, out of a bunch of urine samples, they can even distinguish aggressive prostate cancer from low-risk or intermediate cancer.

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Cholesterol, Prostate Cancer, and Race

There’s a connection between cholesterol and the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. It’s not fully understood, and a new study by Johns Hopkins investigators has uncovered a further wrinkle: race.

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Renal Cell Carcinoma: Immunotherapy Before Nephrectomy

Checkpoint inhibitors may work best “when the kidney and kidney tumor are still in place, because there are more cancer cells and molecules for the immune system to recognize and treat."

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Team Discovers Unique Immune Cells in RCC

A team led by cancer immunologists Debebe Theodros, M.D., Ph.D., and Jelani Zarif, Ph.D., has found something new in renal cell carcinoma (RCC)

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The Patrick C. Walsh Hereditary Prostate Cancer Program

“To reduce deaths from prostate cancer, we must identify men at risk of lethal prostate cancer when cure is still possible. The best way to do that is through genetic testing.”

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A Challenging Opportunity

“For the first time, we have the potential to identify every gene involved in HPC, and to help thousands of men and their families understand their family cancer risk, seek early detection and treatment, and save many lives.”

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Multidisciplinary Clinic for Patients with UTUC

For more than 130 years, Johns Hopkins has provided expertise in treating difficult and rare diseases that doctors at some hospitals might never even come across: diseases like UTUC.

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Stepping Up to Help

In the dark early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of reliable Covid-19 tests.

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Insights into Aggressive Cancer: Cellular Garbage Strikes and Sneaky Sleepers

Scientists Sarah Amend, Ph.D., Ken Pienta, M.D., and colleagues are very interested in a specialized type of immune cell, called an M2-like macrophage.

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Changing the Odds

Within a few miles of Johns Hopkins are thousands of men who have the highest risk of dying from aggressive prostate cancer in the world.

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A Domino Chain of Discovery

Four decades ago, Patrick Walsh started an ongoing series of discoveries that transformed the field of prostate cancer research and treatment.

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The PSMA-Targeting Era: A Game-Changer for Men with Prostate Cancer Worldwide

PSMA is tiny; you couldn’t see it if you tried with the naked eye. It’s just a protein, one of about 2 million in the human body. So why are doctors and patients so excited about it?

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Partin Stepping Down as Director

After 17 years, urologist Alan Partin, M.D., Ph.D., is stepping down as the Jakurski Family Director of The Brady Urological Institute, Urologist-in-Chief for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Director of the Department of Urology.

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Spotlight on UTUC

An estimated 9,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC), which affects the renal pelvis or ureter and is difficult to treat.

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Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

Having one or more mutated DNA damage repair (DDR) genes – “spell-checkers” that normally stop faulty genes from replicating – has been linked to a better response to neoadjuvant (presurgical) chemotherapy in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC).

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Treatment Goals for NMIBC: What Do Patients Think?

In recent years, new clinical trial guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have stimulated the development of new drugs for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

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Men and Women Respond Differently to Immune Checkpoint Blockade

Immune checkpoints are like tiny brakes that immobilize immune cells that otherwise could be fighting cancer.

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New Guidance for Treating Early Testicular Cancer

Most men (94 to 100 percent) with early-stage testicular cancer, confined to the testicle or lymph nodes that drain the testicles, are cured. “For these men, the difficulty is to determine the best treatment strategy,” says urologist Phillip ...

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Ultrasound and Testicular Tumors

Not all testicular lumps – particularly, those smaller than 2 cm, as seen on ultrasound – are cancer; some are not. “Most men with a testicular mass greater than 2cm have cancer, but for many men with a mass less than 2cm, it is a benign ...

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“Unclassifiable” Kidney Cancer: New Insights

There are less common types of RCC, such as papillary and chromophobe – and then there are a number of kidney tumors each year that don’t fit any of these categories, and thus are known as “unclassified RCC.”

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RCC: Local Recurrence Can Be Cured with Surgery

“More than half of these patients were cured with a second surgery, and were able to avoid systemic chemotherapy.”

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Urogynecological Surgery Case Study—New Program’s Minimally Invasive Approach

Treatment options for stress incontinence included a pessary, a suture procedure, non-mesh slings, and permanent mesh slings.

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JAMA Study: Immunotherapy May Affect Male Fertility

This study is the first to link immunotherapy for cancer with reduced sperm-producing cells.

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Early-Stage Testicular Cancer: Treating with Surgery Alone?

A new Brady study, published in European Urology Focus, finds that in addition to preventing unnecessary side effects from chemotherapy and radiation, this approach might also be the most cost-effective option for men with a form of early ...

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Newly Discovered Cells Shed Light on Immunotherapy in Kidney Cancer

Finding new potential biomarkers and targets for treating kidney cancer.

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The Hunt for Urinary Biomarkers to Diagnose Kidney Cancer

Extracting these vesicles from the blood and urine could make it possible to diagnose kidney cancer noninvasively.

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Shedding Light on the “Trickle-Down” Effect of Mutated Genes in Kidney Cancer

“We have identified candidate drug targets that have been explored in other cancer types, but have yet to be evaluated in ccRCC.”

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Our Multidisciplinary Kidney Cancer Group

Meet our two new faculty – who, with Phillip Pierorazio, M.D., newly named Director of the Kidney Cancer Program – form a multidisciplinary and translational kidney cancer group.

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If Bladder Cancer Responds Well to Chemotherapy, Is It Safe to Skip the Cystectomy?

Who needs surgical removal of the bladder (radical cystectomy)? And who doesn’t need it? Unfortunately, that question is still very hard to answer.

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Can Biomarkers Predict Who Will Benefit from Chemotherapy in Bladder Cancer?

New tests could identify who will benefit from chemotherapy, and spare those who will not.

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Tackling a Rare, Aggressive Form of Cancer

It turns out that small cell neuroendocrine bladder carcinoma has a lot in common with small cell neuroendocrine lung cancer, and this may lead to new strategies for treatment.

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New Immunotherapy Targets: B Cells

B cells play a vital role in the immune response against cancer.

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Targeting Hypoxia in Bladder Cancer

The Brady team is investigating whether these cancers are uniquely sensitive to therapies that target tumor blood vessels.

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Coulter Joins Research Faculty

Could timing make a difference with drugs that target the androgen receptor, combined with radiation and other treatments?

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When PSA Comes Back: GC Test Helps Predict Risk of Metastasis

Phuoc Tran, M.D., Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences, oncology, and urology, is working to push the boundaries of curable cancer.

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PSMA PET/CT with PyL Reaches a Key Milestone toward Approval

“PyL PET/CT detected localized disease in most men with biochemical recurrence presenting with negative or equivocal conventional imaging, and led to changes in management in the majority of patients.”

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Targeting “Non-Coding” Genes for Prostate Cancer

In the search for better treatments for prostate cancer, protein-coding genes – genes that make proteins that cancer needs to grow and spread – have been a major focus of scientific attention.

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Genes, Race, and Prostate Cancer

Understanding why African American men are at higher risk of aggressive cancer.

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Prostate Cancer Immuno-therapy: A New Target

“Despite enrolling patients who had a high risk of prostate cancer recurrence, the majority of these men receiving Enoblituzumab remain cancer-free for 12 months or more after prostatectomy.”

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New Imaging Techniques Highlight Specific Erection Nerves

Four decades ago, after his discovery of the bundles of nerves that control erection, Patrick Walsh, M.D., performed the first purposeful nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy.

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Making Robotic Prostatectomy Even More Minimally Invasive

A new da Vinci robotic system involves only one small incision, near the patient’s navel. How does it compare to the standard robotic prostatectomy?

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Just Invented: A Robotic Ultrasound Probe for the Prostate

Stoianovici’s lab has built a prototype of the new probe, and used it in preclinical tests – that were so promising, the FDA has approved the device for clinical trials.

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40th Anniversary of a Lifesaving Discovery

In 1982, only 7 percent of men with prostate cancer underwent surgery. By 1992, 70 percent of men in their 50s and half of men in their 60s underwent surgery. That year, 100,000 radical prostatectomies were performed. By 2002, deaths from ...

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SelectMDx: Could This Be a “Liquid Biopsy” for Active Surveillance?

For years, scientists have been searching for a liquid biopsy, a noninvasive test using blood or urine that could provide information about the aggressiveness of a man’s prostate cancer.

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A New Urine Test for Aggressive Prostate Cancer?

The test looks for proteins in the urine that are made by clinically significant prostate cancer.

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SelectMDx: Could This Be a “Liquid Biopsy” for Active Surveillance?

Nobody likes prostate biopsy. In fact, says epidemiologist Bruce J. Trock, M.P.H., Ph.D., the Frank Hinman, Jr. Professor in Urology, this is a major reason why men with low-risk prostate cancer, who otherwise could stay in active surveillance, ...

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“Robust, Innovative, Forward-Thinking” - Personalized Active Surveillance, Safer Surgery

“It’s not just, ‘Your PSA is now 4, it used to be 3,’ but, ‘there’s an approximately 17-percent chance that you are harboring more aggressive cancer.”

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Slowing Down Prostate Cancer

This novel therapy slowed the growth in 93 percent of mice with prostate cancer, and 53 percent of mice with pancreatic cancer.

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A Challenging Year

Partin: “Even in a global pandemic, our mission remains the same: to defeat urologic disease.”

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Infection, Inflammation, and Prostate Cancer: “Smoking Gun” Evidence!

Because of the unique molecular tools used in this study, Sfanos, De Marzo and colleagues were able to catch the formation of these invasive cancers in real time.

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Big Data Helps Shape A New Model for Live Kidney Donation

A tool developed by Morgan Grams, MD, PhD, screens potential kidney donor candidates by estimating their own chance of developing kidney disease, and it has been widely adopted by renal specialists around the globe.

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In Active Surveillance, Some Small Kidney Tumors Just Go Away

Discovery Winter 2019

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HOXB13 and AR-V7: Genetic Partners in Crime

Discovery Winter 2019

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The DISSRM: Nearly a Decade of Patient-Specific Treatment

Discovery Winter 2019

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A Powerful Immunotherapy Mix for Bladder Cancer

Discovery Winter 2019

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Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy And Upper Tract Urothelial Cancer

Discovery Winter 2019

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“Liquid Biopsy” and Personalized Treatment for Bladder Cancer

Discovery Winter 2019

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In Bladder Cancer, the Subtype Matters

Discovery Winter 2019

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Remembering Donald S. Coffey

Discovery Winter 2019

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Identifying Genes through Discovery

Discovery Winter 2019

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If You Have Lymph Node Metastases After Radical Prostatectomy, What Should You Do?

Discovery Winter 2019

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“We’ve Got a Team.”

Discovery Winter 2019

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Not So Many Biopsies in Active Surveillance?

Discovery Winter 2019

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Could Inherited Gene Mutations Affect Men in Active Surveillance?

Discovery Winter 2019

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“Liquid Biopsy” for Advanced Prostate Cancer Spots Tiny Danger Signs Sooner

Discovery Winter 2019

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A Key Target in Aggressive Prostate Cancer May Lead to New Drug Development

Discovery Winter 2019

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Combination Immunotherapy Combats AR-V7+ Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2019

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What’s the Best Way to Treat Localized, Gleason 9-10 Prostate Cancer?

Discovery Winter 2019

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New Device Extracts CTCs From Blood

Discovery Winter 2019

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End-of-Radiation PSA and Intermediate- Risk Cancer

Discovery Winter 2019

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Prostate Cancer Therapy and the Gut Microbiome

Discovery Winter 2019

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Could Some Intermediate- Risk Men Do Active Surveillance?

Discovery Winter 2019

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PSMA-PET Data System

Discovery Winter 2019

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Thinking About Cancer in New Ways

Discovery Winter 2019

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Breaking Prostate Cancer’s Control Over the Immune System

Discovery Winter 2019

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Pain Control after Radical Prostatectomy

Discovery Winter 2019

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Liver Fibrosis and PSA

Discovery Winter 2019

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Custom-Tailored Prostate Biopsy

Discovery Winter 2019

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A Genetic Target to Help the Immune System Fight Cancer

Discovery Winter 2019

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Dangerous Genes

Discovery Winter 2019

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Single Blood Test Screens for Eight Cancer Types

News Release January 18, 2018

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High Blood Sugar and Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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When Can PSA Testing Be Stopped After Prostatectomy?

Discovery Winter 2018

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Pushing Back the Frontier of Curability

Discovery Winter 2018

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The Protein that Makes Metastasis Possible

Discovery Winter 2018

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A Molecular Marker for Aggressive Penile Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Brady Urologists Shape National Guidelines for Kidney Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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A “Liquid Biopsy”for Advanced Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Helping the Immune System Fight Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Immunotherapy in Bladder Cancer: Encouraging Results Prompt FDA Approval

Discovery Winter 2018

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“You’re Not Going to Die From This.”

Discovery Winter 2018

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Hopkins-Led Study Proves Active Surveillance is Safe for Small Kidney Tumors

Discovery Winter 2018

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The Great Promise of PSMA-Targeting Agents

Discovery Winter 2018

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Putting Positive Surgical Margins into Perspective

Discovery Winter 2018

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Preserving the Treasure Trove of Prostate Tissue

Discovery Winter 2018

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Immunotherapy Offers Hope for Men With Advanced Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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A New Target in Preventing Metastasis

Discovery Winter 2018

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Good News for Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Many Small Kidney Tumors Don’t Need to be Treated

Discovery Winter 2018

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Bladder Cancer: Precision Diagnosis is Critical

Discovery Winter 2018

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Read About the Research You Have Helped Make Possible

Discovery Winter 2018

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A “Liquid Biopsy”for Advanced Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Finding and Treating Stray Cancer Cells Sooner than Ever

Discovery Winter 2018

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Helping the Immune System Fight Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Good News for Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer

Discovery Winter 2018

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Better Treatment for Aggressive Prostate Cancer

OnTarget 2017/2018

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Breaking DNA and Killing Cancer

Discovery January 01, 2017

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A “Sweeter” PSA Test

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Momentum and Hope through Discovery

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Precision Brachytherapy, Using Real-Time X-Rays

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Mast Cells Linked to Risk of Cancer Recurrence

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Nobody Connected These Genes With Lethal Prostate Cancer, Until Now

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Is Cancer Aggressive? Soon, You May Take a Urine Test to Find Out

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Immunotherapy for Kidney Cancer: Who are the “Exceptional Responders?”

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Is the Androgen Receptor also responsible for bladder cancer development and progression?

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Healthy Men Over 75: Don't Stop PSA Screening

Discovery January 01, 2017

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End-of-Radiation PSA Helps Predict the Success of Treatment

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Reassurance for Men on Active Surveillance

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Studying the Seeds of Metastasis

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Who Should Have Chemotherapy Before Surgery?

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Zarif Wins PCF Young Investigator Award

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Prostate Cancer Test Results May Differ in African American Men

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Testicular Cancer: High Cure Rates, Complex Treatment

Discovery January 01, 2017

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PHI Blood Test Spares Men from Unneeded Biopsy

Discovery January 01, 2017

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At Last, a Mouse Model for the Worst Prostate Cancer in Men

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Men Who Quit Smoking Are Less Likely to Die of Prostate Cancer

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Some High-Grade PIN Is Actually Cancer

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Biomarkers to Predict Aggressive Cancer

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Same PSA, But Not the Same Cancer

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Active Surveillance for Small Kidney Tumors

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Where’s the Cancer? Now We Can See It

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Next-Generation Therapy for Early Bladder Cancer: Nanoparticles

Discovery January 01, 2017

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McConkey New Director of Greenberg Institute

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Targeted Biopsy: A Smarter Way to Take Prostate Tissue Samples

Discovery January 01, 2017

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Web Application Predicts Status of Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

Insight September 28, 2016

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Capturing Cancer Cells in the Bone, Years Before They Cause Trouble

Discovery January 25, 2016

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At Last, a Desperately Needed Mouse Model of Aggressive Prostate Cancer

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Taking "AIM"at Invasive Cancer

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Could Nerve-Sparing Brachytherapy Help Preserve Sexual Function?

Discovery January 25, 2016

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New Tests Show Genetic Changes Linked to Aggressive Prostate Cancer

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Two Non-Cancerous Causes for Higher PSA

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Potential New Pathway to Kill Prostate Cancer

Discovery January 25, 2016

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For Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer: New Hopkins Test Can Tell if Some Drugs Won't Work

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Boosting Testosterone Not Shown to Raise Prostate Cancer Risk

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Early-Stage Testiscular Cancer: A Laparoscopic Improvement in Treatment

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Better Diagnosis of Kidney Tumors

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Is a Kidney Tumor Benign? This Not-So-New Test Can Tell

Discovery January 25, 2016

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For Small Kidney Tumors: Active Surveillance is a Safe Option

Discovery January 25, 2016

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Read About the Research You Have Helped Make Possible

Discovery January 25, 2016

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For Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer: High-Dose Testosterone

Discovery January 22, 2016

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High-Grade PIN: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?

Discovery January 22, 2016

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MicroRNAs: Genes that May Make Radiation and Chemotherapy More Effective

Discovery January 22, 2016

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New Tests Show Genetic Changes Linked to Aggressive Prostate Cancer

Discovery January 22, 2016